Ethical retailer of the week: Green People

Green People offers a wide range of organic beauty and skincare products and is one of the leading businesses in its field in the UK.

Green People was set up in 1997 by Charlotte Vøhtz, who just a few years earlier had tried to help her young daughter deal with eczema and skin allergies.

She eventually found out that many of the reactions were due to chemical-based household and personal care products and decided to look for natural alternatives, but discovered that even many ‘natural’ products contained synthetic chemicals.

“From that moment, I realised that we all are children of the chemical age and that man-made chemicals found everywhere, combined with changing dietary habits, profoundly affect us all”, she said.

“With a nursing background, knowledge of herbal medicine, and more than 11 years of experience within the pharmaceutical industry, I decided to take action”.

Charlotte decided she would not use potentially harmful substances, such as sodium lauryl sulphate (SLS), parabens, phthalates, petrochemicals and alcohol (ethanol), and she soon became popular for her organic beauty products, which combined high quality and attention to sensitive skin.

The Green People company now provides more than 100 skin, hair, body and make-up products. The items are also not tested on animals, most of them are free from animal ingredients and are fair trade.

The company also donates 10% of annual net profits to environmental charities. The Soil Association, the Organic Food Federation, EcoCert, the Vegetarian Society and the Good Shopping Guide certify products.

www.greenpeople.co.uk